What exactly is a "Living wage"?

[PandaBear]

There is no such thing as free market economy. It's a myth.

This is my answer. Too broad to say $15 or $20. If you live in LA for example, 90k/year isn't a living wage.

I'm quoting Andy Groove on this, there's no such thing as a free market as government, international politics, etc will always be there skewing things one way or another.

You can try all you want for "free market", but some foreign gov may want to stop you like our gov try to protect us from competition in international market....

 

[sk_pete]

Minimum wage should be zero dollars. Let the market drive it. Don't like the wage? Work somewhere else, or learn a skill.

I have an associates degree from a defunct college and knock down six figures annually from hard work, reliability, professional certification, and learning an in demand skill.

as they say, you are learning (you should) your whole life.
standing still gets you killed.

 

[Dave Hess]

Military is great if you want to learn a skill and get training to use as a civilian.
Not everyone is infantry and a fighting force on the ground.

Lots of high tech career areas and training, even for Guard and Reserves.

The big boss at my job is a former Navy Surface Warfare Officer and is responsible for operations for the entire East coast of the USA.

 

[wpod]

I love listening to crabs in a bucket say what other people deserve. You are all bringing each other down. Saying someone doesn't deserve $20 is pointless. The dollar amount is arbitrary. $20 is a different amount of power than it was 20 years ago. A cheeseburger is $20.

My nephew pays money to work at McDonald's. He operates at about a $150 loss to work there after expenses but he's doing it because he can't get anything else at his age while in school. That is not a living wage.

A bunch of absolute perverts sitting around thinking about what other people deserve, and saying others deserve to live in poverty. So pathetic.

If at any point you feel inclined to do basic math. Multiply 20 by 20-30 and compare it to the cost of rent and groceries in your area. Then realize they get zero health insurance or benefits so they go into debt if they get sick.

Are you helping out your nephew out $$$

 

[RDY4WAR]

Military is great if you want to learn a skill and get training to use as a civilian.
Not everyone is infantry and a fighting force on the ground.

Lots of high tech career areas and training, even for Guard and Reserves.

The big boss at my job is a former Navy Surface Warfare Officer and is responsible for operations for the entire East coast of the USA.

I was a 98G Russian linguist in the Army. I was stationed and deployed out of an intel unit. When I was medically discharged, I went to work at Homeland Security doing similar work for 2x the pay.

After the sequestration, I used my veteran benefits to go to welding school and landed a nice pipe welding job at a nuclear plant making 1.5x more than the homeland security job and better benefits.

 

[Vil_Riker]

Minimum wage should be zero dollars. Let the market drive it. Don't like the wage? Work somewhere else, or learn a skill.

I have an associates degree from a defunct college and knock down six figures annually from hard work, reliability, professional certification, and learning an in demand skill.

Clearly overpaid.

 

[The Critic]

Clearly overpaid.

That’s debatable. Is a dealership mechanic making $120-$140k also overpaid?

 

[IndyIan]

Minimum wage should be zero dollars. Let the market drive it. Don't like the wage? Work somewhere else, or learn a skill.

I have an associates degree from a defunct college and knock down six figures annually from hard work, reliability, professional certification, and learning an in demand skill.

Some people are basically worthless for real work, but becoming a criminal isn't that hard to do either. There are lots of countries with no minimum wage, but you don't want to visit or live there...
IMO, Its far nicer and cheaper for everyone, for a society to have some good public education opportunities, basic social safety nets, and a reasonable minimum wage to make working at a job the path of least resistance. If a society sets up reasonably smart people with no options but a tiny minimum wage job, the average guy feels no duty to participate in the regular society that has abandoned him, and starts looking for better options with low barriers to entry, like crime.
You might keep more of your money with a zero minimum wage for a while, but eventually, you or your children will start to spend more time afraid of crime, and more money trying not to be victims of crime.

 

[PandaBear]

Clearly overpaid.

That’s debatable. Is a dealership mechanic making $120-$140k also overpaid?

The "Clearly overpaid" remake is sarcasm.

 

[IndyIan]

That’s debatable. Is a dealership mechanic making $120-$140k also overpaid?

Well, I think in the broad utility value for society, there are more important jobs that pay much less.
But, no one is forced to go to a dealership, and that wage is part of an hourly rate that the market is choosing to accept. Also I suspect that mechanic hustling pretty good for that level of pay, even in California.

 

[Wolf359]

I made a mistake in this post above and wanted to correct it because it’s a huge mistake. The paragraph from my insane long post above that says=
“The one that was in the military is now a CEO of a company and sold his six figure home, moved to another state and bought another 6 figure home because head hunters are always making him offers and this guy started out with nothing in life, nothing.”

That paragraph I need to correct and should read like this =
The one that was in the military is now a CEO of a company and sold his seven figure home, moved to another state and bought another seven figure home because head hunters are always making him offers and this guy started out with nothing in life, nothing.

That's a great positive example. But I walk by people all the time that are homeless and I guess they have nothing but whatever they carry with them. So there are successes and failures out there. Failure is still real and possible, it's out there.

 

[PandaBear]

That's a great positive example. But I walk by people all the time that are homeless and I guess they have nothing but whatever they carry with them. So there are successes and failures out there. Failure is still real and possible, it's out there.

There are always corner cases and survivor bias in any large number of samples. This is why when deciding whether something is a good suggestion or not it is important to look at the average, median, etc to see what works and what doesn't.

We all know NBA MVPs make a lot of money, but the typical median NBA players don't get paid much and they are just making their paycheck, doing regular jobs after retirement. One for example became my high school PE teacher in a not famous, average school. So don't recommend playing in the NBA as a career goal to young people.

For every Picasso there's a dead broke artist living off cartoon drawing in theme parks and farmer's market, for a below living wage.''

 

[dishdude]

The "Clearly overpaid" remake is sarcasm.

It's hilarious how no one thinks they're overpaid but have no problem stating what they think others should earn.

 

[Wolf359]

For every Picasso there's a dead broke artist living off cartoon drawing in theme parks and farmer's market, for a below living wage.''

Oh yeah, some failed artists go on to better things and others much worse.

 

[JeffKeryk]

It's hilarious how no one thinks they're overpaid but have no problem stating what they think others should earn.

Well, I considered myself very luckily overpaid. Prior to a software application (corporate forecast) going live, my hardazz boss called me into her office; I thought I was dead meat. She told me the execs were very happy with what they saw; that's when I was given my 1st serious stock option.
It wasn't really that long since I was a homeless drunk. And up till this project things were pretty good, but not like this.

But I agree; I find the amount of arrogance striking...

 

[Revving2Redline]

I think that was a work visa program for some seasonal work, perfectly legal, need to pay tax, need workers comp, etc.

The major thing is you are not raising a family here, you are sending your money back home to raise your family "there". You can put up with lots of harsh condition alone if this means a better future "there".

Think of it as, if you are working in Anartica and send money home to raise your family in the US by earning 3x your US income.

Would love to see my daughter get stationed in Antarctica!! You get a medal for wintering over and three months off in Australia .

 

[Wolf359]

Would love to see my daughter get stationed in Antarctica!! You get a medal for wintering over and three months off in Australia .

Well you get a medal for finishing a marathon too. Heck, there are some 5k races that also hand out medals.

 

[gman2304]

Don’t want to offend anybody so everybody gets a trophy!

 

[PandaBear]

Would love to see my daughter get stationed in Antarctica!! You get a medal for wintering over and three months off in Australia .

How much would you need to pay most people to station there (or free 3 months off being enough)? You can keep that medal, we have enough "swag" culture that every new hire get a bunch of useless stickers on the 1st day of work. We're not 8 year old in a Trader Joe's anymore.

 

[PandaBear]

Don’t want to offend anybody so everybody gets a trophy!

It's called swag, not trophy. You are given these nonsense to make you feel happy so they don't need to pay you real $, and a lot of people fall for it. People get offended for a $27.50 bonus, but they are happy when they get $27.50 of swags.